GAULLE (Charles de). Autograph letter signed to General Fran - Lot 176

GAULLE (Charles de). Autograph letter signed to General François Ingold. Colombey-Les-Deux-Églises (Haute-Marne), March 6, 1955. Unp.1/2 in-8, printed letterhead "Le général de Gaulle", retained envelope; letter mounted on tab and envelope applied to same bristol sheet. "Mon cher Ingold, merci de votre "ouvrage collectif" sur Kléber qui m'a fort intéressé, qui est vivant et étonnant [Kléber, fils d'Alsace, hommage collectif à l'occasion du 2ecentenaire, published in 1953 but reviewed in Revue de la défense Nationale in March 1955]. We were delighted to see you - very soon - in Colombey. Please convey to Madame Ingold my most respectful tributes, to which my wife adds her fondest memories. For you, my dear friend, my most cordially devoted sentiments... Thank you for your clarifications on the Fezzan affairs..." A Compagnon de la Libération, General Ingold (1894-1980) spent most of his career with colonial troops, fighting with them at Chemin des Dames, for example. He then served in Morocco during the Rif campaign, then in Madagascar before being posted to French Equatorial Africa, first to Brazzaville in 1939, then to Fort-Archambault in 1940. It was here that he played an important role in rallying Chad to General de Gaulle, for which he was sentenced to death by the Vichy regime in absentia, but promoted to lieutenant-colonel and then colonel in the Free French army. He then took over military command of Chad and Cameroon, was assistant to General Leclerc in the Fezzan campaign (December 1942-January 1943), and fought again in Tunisia. Appointed Director of Military Affairs in Algiers in August 1943, he was promoted to Brigadier General in August 1944, ended the war as Director of Colonial Troops, and was made Major General in 1951.